Google plugs Nexus 4 and Google Now in Grammys ad

Google aired its first prime-time commercial for the Nexus 4 during the Grammy Awards show on Sunday, but the star of the ad wasn’t the smartphone itself.

Titled "Live in the Now," the advertisement focuses on Google Now, the Android exclusive real-time information service. It shows people around the world in Chicago, LA, New York, Paris, and Tokyo using a Nexus 4 and Google Now to get information on the weather, appointments, transit, flights, and help with translations.

Here is an extended version of the ad shown during the Grammys:

The ad positions Google Now as a service exclusive to Android that helps people get around during their day. It also makes Google Now a rival to Apple’s Siri voice-enabled personal assistant, without having to look ridiculous by talking to your phone. Case in point: Here’s Apple’s ad for Siri from last year, showing how Martin Scorsese navigates through his busy schedule.

Google Now has several features that Siri can perform, from giving you the latest weather, sports scores, movie showtimes, nearby places to eat, or currency conversions. But Google Now also rocks many features that you won’t find with Siri, such as information on nearby events, or package tracking. Google is constantly adding new features to Google Now, which are called Google Now cards, all listed here.

Google has not disclosed any sales numbers for the Nexus 4, manufactured by LG. The phone received positive reviews, but its lack of 4G LTE connectivity was criticized by many. Now, a post on the XDA Developers forum claims to have discovered a way to work out how many Nexus 4s have been shipped, based on the IMEI numbers. Based on this theory, it appears more than 1 million Nexus 4 devices have been shipped.